Dog Tags
by titlebreakdown
Summary: Several ANBU squads are caught by enemies leaving Iruka and a team to find a certain ANBU who has what the Hokage needs. Only problem is, he might be dead, and the information might be in enemy hands. Pairings Later. Rated for Language...for now
1. Chapter 1

Dog tags

Dog tags.

They had been scattered across the mission desk, at least two hundred of them. Iruka stared at them in horror, not knowing if they were only the Hidden Leaf's, then brought his gaze back up to the white and red mask of the ANBU captain. After a long moment he found his voice,

"All of these for certain?" His voice wavered dangerously. The captain shook his head sharply and Iruka glanced down at the table again, when he looked up again the Captain was gone. Iruka let out a shuddering breath and reached for a small pile of tags. His fingers had just brushed against the cold metal when the door flew open making Iruka flinch and jerk his hand back.

"Son of a bitch." Tsunade snarled marching towards the desk. Her eyes flicked to Iruka's for a moment before she dropped her gaze to the identification tags. Her hands moved quickly, flipping over a tag here, shifting a tag off of another one there, silently reading the names. Iruka sat staring at her until she glanced up at him and frowned. "Umino, if you're going to just sit there, leave, otherwise make yourself useful."

Iruka nodded and reached for a pile of tags, he knew what she was looking for, he just didn't know…he glanced up at her

"Who?"

Tsunade looked up and met his gaze and his stomach clenched at the pined kindness that was evident in her eyes.

"Shiranui"

Iruka's fingers loosened unconsciously around the chains that held the dog tags he had grabbed. The sharp sound of them hitting the floor made him flinch. Leaning over he picked up the tags and set them in front of him. Flipping them over he began reading of the names.

They worked diligently for several minutes, the pile of tags already looked over growing steadily higher. Iruka looked up as the door slammed open to see white masked ANBU fall through the doorway. Tsunade was by the ninjas side, one hand sliding under the mask the other resting on the black clad chest. Iruka stared in horror as Tsunade leaned closer to the ANBU whispering urgently. The ANBU tilted his head slightly and Iruka caught the words.

"Following…twenty miles back…" then the ninja went limp his head fell back against Tsunades arm. Iruka's fist clenched unconsciously around a dog tag he still held in his hand, making it dig sharply into his palm. Turning his fist he spread his fingers staring at the blood splattered dog tag in his hand. His eyes widened as he saw what was on the tag.

"Tsunade" his voice cracked as he looked up at the Hokage. Her fingers grasped the chain, pulling the tag from his grasp and Iruka watched her face pale instantly as she read what Iruka had just read, the words:

Genma Shiranui

"God damnit"

Iruka flinched as Tsunade brought her hand down onto the table. He noticed several scrolls fall off of the table and onto the floor but ignored them as he watched Tsunade turn and make her way towards the door.

"Umino!" Sharp honey-colored eyes caught and held his gaze. "I want you to find Raidou, Naruto, and Shikamaru and report back to me with them." Iruka nodded and sprinted out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey, watch it

My god I'm sorry for the wait…I've been sans Internet for the past week because my parentals think that I will explode the house if left alone or a week… I'm not totally up to date on every little tailed beast thing…so please don't rip my head off if something's wrong…just tell me to fix it if it annoys you and I will So here's the next part...hope it's good.

"Hey, watch it!"

Iruka stumbled sideways, nearly falling, as he slammed into someone. His shoulder collided against the wall of a building, making him wince, but he was off, leaving confusion in his wake as he sprinted down the street. He skidded to a stop in front of a large apartment building, Raidou's apartment was two stories up, Iruka took the stairs three at a time, he wrenched the door to the landing open. Doors flew by Iruka as he sprinted down the quiet hallway, within moments he was pounding on Raidou's door.

'_God, if he's not here, where am I going to-'_ Iruka's worries were halted as the door flew open, revealing an obviously recently awoken Raidou.

"Iruka? What are-"

Iruka shook his head sharply. "Get dressed Raidou, hurry, we still need to get Shikamaru and Naruto."

Raidou's eyes cleared instantly and with out a single question he nodded, moving back into his apartment, leaving Iruka to wait for him in the doorway.

Less then ten minutes later Raidou, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Iruka stood in front of the Hokage. Iruka heard Shikamaru sigh to his right and tried not to glare at him. He looked up as Tsunade cleared her throat and began to speak.

"Two weeks ago I sent the ANBU black ops out on a mission. Their goal was to obtain a scroll and bring it back to the Hidden Leaf Village."

Iruka raised an eyebrow. She had sent what appeared to be the _entire_ black ops for one single scroll? Then again it sounded like they needed more ninja then just those she had sent for this.

"This scroll is extremely important, or rather, the information on the scroll is important. There are several groups trying to obtain this information and if it gets into their hands it could possibly lead to something catastrophic."

Iruka shifted his gaze to Raidou as the older man cleared his throat softly. Tsunade ignored him and continued.

"Your mission is to find Genma Shiranui and bring him back here alive. After the reports I have received I can only imagine he has destroyed the scroll, and that the information in it is now only his own." She stopped and Iruka felt Raidou tense next to him, he himself held back a shudder of dread at the unfinished statement. There was a moment of silence before Shikamaru spoke up, asking the question that was on all of their minds.

"Who's after him?"

Tsunade rested her elbows on her desk and laced her fingers together staring at the four of them over her hands.

"Akatsuki has…" she paused, then grimaced, "…'convinced' several groups of missing-nin to assist them in capturing the information."

Iruka narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak but Naruto beat him to it.

"What kinda information is on this scroll anyway?" he huffed, crossing his arms and shifting his weight. Tsunade sighed and rubbed her face.

"This scroll was unexpectedly offered to us from the Hidden Rock Village."

Iruka saw Shikamaru's eyes narrow suspiciously, "You trust them? You're willing to send the entire ANBU population to death to obtain information on a scroll that might be useless?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Over a month ago a ninja from the Hidden Rock Village approached me and told me that that the Rock Village had somehow found a way to successfully extract a tailed beast from its Jinjuriki with out killing them." There was a shocked silence for several long moments before Shikamaru spoke again.

"How do you know they weren't just trying to deceive you?" he snapped, glaring accusingly at Tsunade, but she just shook her head again.

"The ninja that reported the information to me? He was the Jinjuriki of the eight-tailed demon." Iruka heard Naruto gasp quietly next to him as he stared at the Hokage in shock, several moments passes before anyone spoke again.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring Naruto along for this one?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes still narrowed dangerously at Tsunade, she just glared at him.

"If you think working with three is better than four and Naruto doesn't mind staying behind, go ahead, ask him, I don't have anyone to replace him."

Shikamaru stayed silent but shot a glance at Naruto who shook his head sharply. Iruka caught the small smile that flitted across the Godaime's face before she spoke again.

"The latest reports I received told me that Genma and his squad were being driven away from the village to the north east. That was less then half an hour ago."

Iruka nodded and turned, following Raidou towards the door. He had just crossed the threshold when Tsunade's voice made him look back.

"Iruka, if you come across any ANBU still able to fight, please, take them with you."

Iruka nodded silently and stepped out into the hallway, and as the door clicked shut behind him he heard the soft words.

"God's be with you."

They had been traveling for less then ten minutes when they came across the first ANBU. Raidou held up a hand and Iruka landed next to him, glancing around. He looked to his right when he heard Naruto gasp softly.

Before Iruka could stop him Shikamaru jumped down to the ground, shifting so his back was against the tree. He crouched down next to the fallen ninja, pulling the mask off, making the man's face visible.

Iruka didn't know the ninja but instantly knew Raidou recognized him at the older mans sharp inhalation of breath. Suddenly Raidou was next to Shikamaru tilting the ninja's face towards him and examining the lifeless body.

"He must have walked here." Iruka heard Raidou state as he landed next to Shikamaru. Naruto, who had landed next to Raidou, crouched down for a better look.

"How can you be so sure?" He asked running his fingers along the black clad shoulder. Raidou glanced at him before bringing his gaze back to the dead ninja's face.

"The wounds on his chest," he turned the body slightly so Naruto and Iruka could see, "the blood dried before the dirt and grass could mix with it, which it would have if he had fallen right here." Iruka glanced around the man's lifeless body and moved past Shikamaru as he noticed something.

"The grass is flattened here," he paused and looked back at the body, "He probably fell and tried dragging himself until…" Iruka trailed off and looked at Raidou.

"We need to keep moving" Shikamaru finally stated, pulling himself to his feet. Without a word they continued, Shikamaru leading the way. Iruka watched Raidou for several minutes before dropping back even with him.

"Who was he?" he asked, quietly enough that the younger men in front of them wouldn't hear.

"Aoba."

The short answer caught Iruka slightly off guard but he nodded quietly and pulled slightly ahead again. The wind picked up suddenly, making Iruka instinctively turn his head to the side. A flash of blue at the corner of his vision made him stagger to a sharp stop. His eyes widened as a medium sized dog landed on the branch across from him, its dark coat shimmering slightly against the light falling through the trees. Iruka sensed Raidou land beside him but kept his gaze fixed upon the dog. There was an instant of silence, as each party scrutinized the other, before the dog limped a few paces closer and tilted its head. "Are you hurrying?" it asked suddenly, catching Iruka by surprise.

"Yes we are" Raidou answered and the dog nodded absently.

"Need help?" Iruka raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"You're hurt, I don't think you would be any help to us" he paused feeling slightly rude, then added hastily, "In the condition you're in right now." The dog looked slightly miffed.

"Not me. Follow." And with that the dog turned tail and bounded off through the trees. After a moment's hesitation they followed. Iruka sighed; at least they were still traveling in the general direction they needed to be going.

The dog came to a stop at the edge of a small clearing; Iruka landed softly next to the dog, looking around cautiously, his eyes widened at the sight before him.

Two ninja lay sprawled in the clearing, three dogs lay between them their eyes trained on the newcomers, four other dogs paced around the edge of the clearing ears alert and eyes sharp. Iruka heard Naruto inhale sharply as he made the connection.

These were Kakashi's dogs.


End file.
